An 18-year-old driver who veered off the road, striking a cyclist twice with his truck and inflicting fatal injuries, got off this week with a $42 ticket for an "unsafe lane change." The teenager may have been texting while driving, a traffic offense but one police apparently could not prove.

KIRO reports:

John Przychodzen was riding his bike home from work when he was struck on July 22.

"His nickname was Mr. Safety," said Chris Davis, an attorney for Przychodzen's family.

Davis said Przychodzen was hit twice by the 18-year-old driver of a pickup truck when the driver veered sharply onto the shoulder of Juanita Drive. Przychodzen was riding on the shoulder, and was run-over from behind.

"In fact, one of the witnesses claims after he was hit, he immediately yelled out, 'What the' -- before the truck struck him again and then ran over him," Davis said.

This kind of situation is exactly why the state legislature passed the vulnerable users' law , which raised penalties on drivers who strike and seriously injure or kill "vulnerable" roadway users such as cyclists, pedestrians, and people in wheelchairs---especially if the driver was breaking the law by texting while driving," Cascade Bicycle Club spokesman Craig Benjamin says.

Unfortunately, that law doesn't take effect until July 1, 2012, leaving the families of riders like Przychodzen without recourse for another eight months.

As if to add insult to, well, fatal injury, the story takes pains to note that the driver who mowed Przychodzen down "has to go the rest of his life knowing he killed somebody."